Goodbye Magazines, Hello Blog-azines…?

web 2.0,disruptive technology,blogging,technical writing,print publishing,first time author

Web 2.0 Impacts First-Time Print Authors

Some of my background research for Web 2.0 has recently included the development of blogs for self-publishers of books and periodical articles. One question was how to value the content delivered through blogs or through print media. That was easy - computer literate demographics went to the search bar first rather than Barnes and Noble.

The next question I needed to answer was - where the tipping point in blogging is to get into traditional publishing?

First Time Authoring: Blogs Highly Recommended

The print industry experts personally interviewed this year by our team have reinforced the first-time authoring launch strategy: build the blog first, and then launch the book after your audience can support it.

Here’s a parenting blog that I’m helping the book’s IP owner launch. Admittedly a book about parenting is a niche market with some fierce competition, so this blog is a logical step in generating interest and a vehicle in announcing regional speaking engagements and other marketing events.

2007: Blogging Disrupts Periodical Literature

Traditionally, first-time authors have been recommended to write small 500 to 1000 word articles for periodical literature in order to break into the industry. Looking into this venue shows that recently periodical print media has been strongly impacted in a classic example of Disruptive Technology by the interactive news posted in blogs.

Mathew Ingram has a great summary of blog fusion into magazine industry focusing on the recent Business2.0 collapse.

The inescapable fact is that if you’re interested in anything remotely time-sensitive — technology (and particularly the Internet), news about celebrities (where TMZ.com and PerezHilton rule) and even sports or investment-related news (Marketwatch) — then some kind of blog platform or Web-based magazine just makes more sense than print.

It’s not that the two can’t co-exist — they can, and Business 2.0 may have given up the fight too soon — but the Web is the most important part now, instead of just an add-on or afterthought.

…Maybe we should call them blog-azines

Here is another question featuring the same source information about Business2.0’s editor going to TechCrunch. Quoted from Is TechCrunch Still A “Blog”?:

In a bit of blogging-centric news, TechCrunch has recently hired Erick Schonfeld as its co-editor, Mr. Schonfeld being the former editor of the late Business 2.0 magazine.

It does beg the question with the hiring earlier this year of Heather Harde, who was then the SVP of Mergers and Acquisitions at Fox Interactive, how “mainstream” TechCrunch is really getting — and perhaps more to the point, if TechCrunch is really still a “blog”.

TechCrunch is also featured as a case study in Pearsonified.com’s article titled When Does A Blog Become A Magazine?

There are quite a few bloggers who are essentially running bona-fide publications, and some of them make good money doing it. In my opinion, a few of these sites have reached their tipping points, and they have become as much a part of our information pipeline as any reasonably successful magazine or newspaper…

…The one thing that will change about print is the way that publishers enter that marketplace. I talked about it earlier, but I’ll say it again here for clarity - print was once the starting point, but in the years to come, print will become the destination for those who prove their mettle on the Web.

Is Web 2.0 At Its Tipping Point Into Help Authoring?

With the expectation of your audience changing into a more interactive view, the Help Authoring you’re performing will start shifting towards a more nimble creation. I’m envisioning a Workflow Collaboration that will blend review of the documentation within a blog.

I’m using that type of mix today and I call it a DevBlog. Each of my clients has access 24/7 to the latest tasks accomplished.

The trends in the next few years that I’ll be recommending will include blog-like Web 2.0 interfaces which add commenting capability directly into the help files. This will most probably blend Technical Support into hyperlinking relevant user forums subjects literally within the help documentation.

Most probable is that the feedback from online documentation will be swiftly implemented as change orders, and this will impact the development priorities, requiring quick editing and republishing of content. Using a single-source tool obviously helps this, as does XML-based help.